I'm enjoying a Victory Hop Devil Ale, in celebration as I write this. I've had a truly remarkable expericience today.

I'm 53. I've listened to a lot of music over the years. My interests have run a wide gambit. I've been an amature musician most of my life, too. I think I have some idea of what what good music sounds like.

I purchased a Decware SE84ZS 2 or 3 months ago. I talked Dave into selling it in kit form. I had the hots to build something and this seemed like the perfect thing for me. I don't have much knowledge in electronics but I can read schematics and I'm reasonably handy.

The little amp has always been a challange in my system. (See the thread called "Dazed and Confuzed" in the Zen Triode support section.) It sounded good but I always felt like I wasn't really getting what all the rave was about. I replaced old corroded speaker cables. That helped. I discovered problems with my speakers. (Original Klipshe Forte) I replaced tweeter diaghragms. Then, I got motivated to upgrade the crossovers and built custom crossovers with Hovland caps. Then I found a buzzing sound in one of the mid range horns. I rebuilt it myself and fixed that problem. (The diaphragms are a bonded assembly and the glue dried out and failed.) Things got better, but the little amp just would not play very loud without audible, yet subtle distortion. It sounded pretty darned good but I still had doubts that the amp was everything people say it is. So, I just remained persistant and kept looking deeper into tweaks and fixes.

Then one day, things really went haywire. I turned on the amp and schreeching sounds were comming out of my speakers! I turned off the amp, and franticaly pulled the input cables. I found a burned resistor. Why? I talked to Dave and he said I probably had a shorted tube. He was right.

I put my old trusty Yamaha 100w/channel amp back into service while I waited for new tubes. It sure can play loud. But still, something was missing. All the notes were there. The soundstage seemed as wide as the room. No depth to it though. I was noticing that details were missing that the Zen amp had taught me were there. Hmmm.

I ordered a new pair of 6n15n-ev tubes and a new pair of 1K 2W resistors. They arrived yesterday and the amp was up and running only minutes later. Wow! I noticed things were different! What is going on?

The amp can play louder now. I can reach peaks of 100 dB at 1 meter. I can't hear any distortion. I usually turn in down to about 96 dB or maybe a tad lower. The stereo sounded better than before!

Then... (here comes the "ecstacy" part) today my wife and I sat down to listen for a spell. I put on Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle to the Grave." Something undescribable happened. The stereo disapeared! I've had my Klipsch speakers for many years but they have NEVER sounded this good! I was blown away by the experience. The music sounds better than anything I've ever experienced in my home. The stereo created the illusion of a live performance so well that I was freaking out! SERIOUSELY! I was getting choked up! I was nearly in tears! I am at a loss for words to describe how good it really sounds! My wife was very amazed too! (Bonus points!)

I had to put the music on pause. It was so overwhelming. I immediately called Decware and Dave picked up the phone! Just the man I hoped to talk to. I had to tell him what just happened. I almost could not speak... still blown away by the experience. He seemed very happy to hear about my experience. He says that is what motivates him... the same kind of things happens to him, too.

I'm still a bit "high" from this experience. Now, I "get it"! This little SET amp is something you have to experience! It is difficult to describe. The music really is more real. Hi-fi is an illusion... the illusion of creating live music. The Decware SE84ZS creates this illusion better than anything I've ever heard. Some of my friends have some pretty high end stuff but this "freak out" experience never happened to me before like this. I've had some great moments during serious listening. However, this beats anything I've ever heard in my life!!!

If Dave was here, I would give him a big hug right now. I am gratefull that someone in this world is doing what he does and at a price that is reachable by the average 'Joe' like me. My hat is off to Dave!

I have had my Decware amps for many years now, at first what really caught my attention was the lack of listener fatigue. Then after rolling NOS tubes, I started getting goose bumps, so much that I started a goose bump factor scale of my own. What is the best is when something happens and you get goosebumps, then the music intensifies and it seems like your goosebumps get goosebumps. Now I am really one a roll since I have been using V-caps and am now thinking how good can it get. Next I am going to try some blackgate caps, and a grid choke on the input tube. A lot depends at this point on if what I want to do will fit inside the little Zen's chassis, but I have not heard too many amplifiers I would say are better yet.

If you really want a live experience with an incredible sound stage, try out the Horn Shoppe horns, you can go anywhere in the room and the musicians stay right on stage, up until you get within five feet of one speaker. Those things are truly incredible, they won't reach super volumes with a Select, but they will present a incredible experience that your not soon to forget. Then you can try Randy's thing, where he sits on the couch with the horns at his knees and the whole room in from of him becomes the stage.

Then... (here comes the "ecstacy" part) ...Something undescribable happened. The stereo disapeared! I've had my Klipsch speakers for many years but they have NEVER sounded this good! I was blown away by the experience. The music sounds better than anything I've ever experienced in my home. The stereo created the illusion of a live performance so well that I was freaking out! SERIOUSELY! I was getting choked up! I was nearly in tears! I am at a loss for words to describe how good it really sounds! My wife was very amazed too! (Bonus points!)

KD, congratulations! I have experienced this many times. The Select is quite a magical little amp. The emotion and realism that this little machine delivers has to be heard to be believed. It seems like mine has recently reached another plateau in performance (bloom, fine aging? who knows...). In a past forum, I mentioned that with certain recordings, I felt as though (like you) I was seated in front of a live performance (almost as if my speakers were acting as a mini-PA). It is something to experience and hard to put into words.

I have a pair of older Selects and my experience has been like that for several years. I owned a pair of Klipsch Conwalls and experienced some incredible "scary real" moments. At the end of the day, the Cornwalls were a little "too big for the room" and I decided to go with a pair of HDTs.Haven't looked back since.

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....at first what really caught my attention was the lack of listener fatigue.

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To me, other than the incredible holographic soundstage is THE reason I have kept with the Selects. I have never experienced listener fatigue with my Decware set-up. I have owned mega-buck, mega-watt, highly reviewed and recommended SS components/systems, and every one of them had my ears in a lots of discomfort after about 1-2hrs of listening.

I don't think you have an impedance mismatch here, ideally you want zero impedance on an output, and infinite impedance on an input, when it comes to line level coupling. The source like a nice load on it in the output, otherwise it will start creating distortion if the load impedance is too low. You could easily change the input impedance on the Select, by chaning out the 100K volume pot for a 2K volume pot, and have the same impedance as your sources output, but that would not be good, perhaps even disasterous.

I guess I just take for granted the imaging, soundstaging and listener ease that Decware amps provide. . . .I've had them glowing for so many years now!

I could imagine having really expensive tube amps if I were ever to hit a lottery jackpot, but short of some sort of crazy windfall, I don't see myself straying from the Decware camp. Just such amazing sound. . . and such value for money.

Seems like it's been a while since a post like this was introduced! Glad to hear your impressions, KD! The Decware amps indeed offer something special. I've used mine exclusivley with single driver speakers, but would love to hear it with a pair of K'horns (having bought my first hi-fi "system" in the mid '60's, the Zen amp is the finest I've ever had) Don

I don't think you have an impedance mismatch here, ideally you want zero impedance on an output, and infinite impedance on an input, when it comes to line level coupling. The source like a nice load on it in the output, otherwise it will start creating distortion if the load impedance is too low. You could easily change the input impedance on the Select, by chaning out the 100K volume pot for a 2K volume pot, and have the same impedance as your sources output, but that would not be good, perhaps even disasterous.

TG [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Thanks Terry, although I can sling some solder, I don't think I'll attempt that 8-)

My thoughts were to go from the DAC -> TVC -> Select direct inputs - bypassing the pot. I remember Steve's paper on "HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT PREAMP" where he speaks about input/output voltages and impedance balancing so I think I am in the ballpark ;).

There use to be pics of him and others listed on this link on the website, i remember some on the tour of his old shop, the one before last. Also Beni posed in Steves redesign of the Jensen Imperial horns on his site years ago.